Fatima, Portugal, May 11, 2017 / 05:02 am (CNA/EWTN News).- The niece of Fatima visionary Sr. Lucia dos Santos said her aunt was a normal person like everyone else, but shared some personal advice that her saintly relative used to give: to pray at least something every day.
“She always asked me to pray the rosary every day, because there were many who did not pray,” Maria dos Anjos, niece of Fatima visionary Lucia dos Santos, told CNA in an interview.
“This was what Our Lady asked: that we pray the rosary every day. Because there were many who didn’t pray and because of this many souls went to hell because there was no one to pray for them,” she said.
Anjos, who only saw her aunt when they went to visit her in the convent, said the advice Lucia always gave her was to pray daily, and “that I not forget.”
She recalled that in a few of the conversations she had with her aunt, she confessed to not finishing the rosary because she was tired, having worked hard in the fields all day.
In response, Lucia didn’t reproach, but instead told her to “always start it, and if you don’t finish, Our Lady will finish it.”
Anjos, 97, is the daughter of one of Lucia’s older sisters. She grew up in the house directly across the street from where Lucia and her family used to live, and continues to live there with one of her sons today. Every evening she can be seen sitting on the front porch area with a rosary in hand.
While now there are paved streets and cars driving past the houses and tourist shops set up near Lucia’s house, which is now preserved as a museum and is open to the public for visits, Anjos said that when she was growing up, “there wasn’t anything here…just a mountain and some sheep and donkeys.”
Although she was only one year old at the time Lucia entered the convent, Anjos said her family would go to visit whenever they could.
Lucia, she said, “was a sister like the others. There was no difference. She was just like the other sisters who were in the convent,” and was always “joyful” – both as a child and as a religious sister.
Recalling memories that her mother had shared of her and Lucia’s childhood, Anjos said Lucia was a normal child like everyone else, and never lacked playmates.
“Many children came to play with her because their parents went to the wine estates and left their children here, because there was always someone at the house of Lucia’s mother who looked after the kids,” Anjos said.
Her grandmother and mother to Lucia, Maria Rosa Farreira, was catechist, and would also teach the children who came to the house while their parents were away.
Faith was always a big part of their family, even before the apparitions, Anjos said, explaining that “we always prayed the rosary, we went to Mass every Sunday, we did what we saw that could be done.”
After the apparitions of Mary, “we continued, doing more, and remembering that Our Lady asked us to pray more and to make more sacrifices,” she said, jesting that “we do our homework well.”
She recalled being able to attend Mass with Pope John Paul II during one of his three visits to Fatima, saying she was able to receive communion from him alongside her aunt, Sister Lucia.
“When communion came, I received communion from his hands, from the hands of the Holy Father. I liked it a lot,” she said, adding “you always like good things, do you not?”
Though she wasn’t able to speak with John Paul, Anjos said she was still “very happy,” and is equally content to welcome Pope Francis during his May 12-13 visit for the centenary of the Fatima apparitions.
During the visit, Francis will also canonized the two other Fatima visionaries – Francisco and Jacinta Marto – who were Lucia’s younger cousins, but died shortly after the apparitions took place.
“I am very glad they will be canonized,” she said, explaining that in her and her family’s mind, the siblings were already saints. Though it will now become official, she said she believes devotion to them will be “the same,” since people had already viewed them as holy.
While she’s sad she won’t be able to attend this Mass personally, Anjos said she’ll be watching it on TV, which she said is enough to make her happy.
Noting an uptick in visits to the shrine, Anjos said that many people, her family included would pray the rosary and visit the shrine after the apparitions, but “it seems that we have more devotion.”
“I think that faith has increased here and in the whole world,” she said. “At least I think it has, because many people come here, and that’s why we have to (pray) more and more. I think it did a lot of good for people to have Our Lady appear here.”
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Um, he should be retired & sent to the Mr mccarick home for mitres gone south…
All of humanity was created by God. As Christians we are called to love God above all things, with all our hearts, with all our souls and with all our minds and TO LOVE OUR NEIGHBOR AS OURSELVES. I think that includes Muslims.
To truly love someone is to desire and will what is best for them, in this life and the life to come. Is it better for Muslims to stay Muslim, or to hear the Gospel and, by God’s grace, become Catholic?
Many Christian missionaries through the ages, including several early Franciscans who were stoned to death in Morocco, have given their lives for testifying and preaching the Gospel among the followers of the religion of peace. Many more Christians have been killed and enslaved by the triumphant armies of the religion of peace. See this scholarly interview by CWR Fr. Connolly:
https://www.catholicworldreport.com/2020/12/16/the-forgotten-history-of-christian-slavery-under-islam/
Of course Miss Rosemary. Neighbor means neighbor. We don’t exclude anyone from that love. God made us all.
Ah yes, but Christ Has Revealed True Love requires desiring Salvation for one’s beloved, so how can one be Loving anyone if they first and foremost do not desire that person’s Salvation?
I agree.
I think Leo has lost his mind establishing a prayer room at the Vatican for islamists. I doubt if Orthodox Christian Church would hear anything of this nonsense.
Indeed. The Orthodox Churches have had Islam rattling their gates for 1400 years. The know exactly what is at risk.
I was hoping he would be different, but it’s becoming more apparent that Pope Leo is a Francis clone.
I look forward to the new welcoming of immigrants by the Vatican.
To borrow and injunction, Pope Leo, tear down those walls.
TPR: instead of asking Uganda to accept our criminal “migrants”, I think we ought to advocate sending all of our illegal aliens to the Vatican. They’ll be delighted to receive them all as they would Christ. One million illegals should fit comfortably inside those wall of Vatican City State
Yes,, Yes Yes I completely agree with you.
Redux you are not making sense.
Here is your recent comment in Chapp’s CWR article on Dilexit.
‘ DiogenesRedux
October 14, 2025 at 1:10 am
ELIAS GALY: Are you advocating the weaponizatuon of the Eucharist to advance a political cause? Because that’s exactly what this was. I hope you’re not virtue signaling. ‘
https://www.catholicworldreport.com/2025/10/10/reflections-on-dilexi-te-the-first-magisterial-document-of-leo-xivs-papacy/
Presumably the Pontifical Commission for the Vatican City State is responsible for overseeing the Vatican’s forward-looking abortion initiatives?
At least Cupich should be able to count on the support of abortion expert and Dark Vatican friend Senator Durbin.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HWqKPWO5T4o
Bingo. The same analogy came up in discussion the other day with daily communicants. We observe a boy’s club, the faithful abandoned while the lads climb the ladder and proclaim their personal truths as doctrine.
It doesn’t cut the mustard.
Deep State Leo.
The good news Cupich is leaving Chicago. The bad news is that Pope Leo next selection will likely be similar to Cupich.
The news will be news when the appointment is made! Not before. If you must speculate, speculate with Charity.
A “promotion” to the 109-acre Vatican city-state, rather than to a dicastery of the Holy See. And, as in the United States, when some House members are elected to the Senate, this can improve the average IQ of both houses. Waiting now to see who will replace Cardinal Cupich in Chicago…
Groundskeeper at the Leo XIV estate is nothing to sneer about. Besides there’s the camaraderie of two windy men from the Windy City.
A charitable construction of this appointment is that Cupich has been kicked upstairs to a largely ineffectual post at the Vatican. He’ll likely do less damage there than in Chicago.
I’m shocked, shocked I tell you. Most all the American catholic media outlets and pundits have been assuring us Leo wasn’t Francis 2.0 and claiming Leo didn’t side with Cupich in the Derbin award scandal. Not only has Leo not accepted Cupich’s resignation, he’s now given him yet another position, also meaning Cupich is staying on in Chicago for the foreseeable future.
I had such Hope, such joy at Pope Leo’s election. I thought I saw in him a good man, a holy man. But, no I was mistaken. It hurts my heart to see he really is Francis 2.0, as the saying goes. I remind myself that God is in charge so all is unfolding in accordance with his will.
His Will or His permissive will?
God does not Will that we accommodate a blasphemy of The Holy Ghost, due to the hardening of our hearts.
God wills that we are Faithful and Abide In The Word Of God Incarnate.
Every day I am more disappointed in Francis 2.0. Is this a reward for the havoc and cruelty Cupich has wreaked in Chicago? Nothing on China as they advance with their control of the Church; no ultimatums to those committing ACTUAL genocide of Christians in Nigeria; a big increase in the number of bishops in the US denying the TLM and sneering at altar rails, kneeling for communion, etc (why? because they KNOW Leo is Francis Lite, Francis with kinder words and the trick of wearing traditional vestments)…. but Cupich gets this.
If only we could hope and trust that this appointment was in the best interests of God…
And the damage to the Church continues
A meaningless membership shared with 5 other Cardinals, and a President (Sister Petrini!) and two Secretaries-General on top. Perhaps a first feathered step in getting the over-age Cupich out of Chicago and maybe out of the country and into regal Vatican episcopal obscurity?
My thought as well…when somebody high up the food chain causes a major scandal for the CEO, promoting them somewhere where they can do less damage is SOP. Will have to see who is tapped to replace him before commencing hair pulling, but frankly, past reinstituting pomp and circumstance, have yet to see much of any getting back on course for the Church…not yet, anyhow…
Unless I’m missing something, Cupich will be out of Chicago and US!
This is a sad appointment. I am getting more and more disappointed in this pope as he makes appalling decisions such as appointing Cupich. I am not a Trad! I am a common-sense American Catholic who realizes that promoting the ethics of normalizing homosexual acts in the Church, as in okaying homosexual marriage, is part of Cupich’s plan.
One look at the sordid group of prelates appearing on the loggia with Leo, smiling and glad-handing with each other at his election to the papacy, and it was easy to predict the direction this was going to go. Since he is clearly smarter and more politically astute than was the bombastic, ham-fisted Francis, Leo will probably end up doing far more damage to the Church. God help us…
Let’s get one thing straight: The Catholic Church does not exist to serve the hierarchy (bishops, cardinals and popes). The hierarchy exists to serve the People of God…
Pope Leo is getting close to strike three in my books. Rewarding a cardinal for despicable behavior (honoring the Senate’s most strident pro-abortion member), is a recipe for a disastrous papacy. The verdict is still out, but I am not as hopeful as I had been for this pope. It’s troubling, to say the least.
The Cupich pontificate-by-proxy…twelve more years lies ahead.
Oh dear.
Are we seeing bishop Fulton Sheen’s counter church slowly gaining traction ?
Hope not.
Leo, are you suffering from SDS (Sheen Derangement Syndrome)?
Au contraire.
This remarkable Irish prophet warned about the ape counter church.
One world religion with something for everyone at the Vatican nowadays.
Pachamama if you wish, a Muslim prayer mat in a small Vatican mosque, a seat for a Protestant monarch, pride parades on request, care for creation prayers (rather than true worship to the Creator), a Chinese communist prelate for prayers to Xi.
But please no traddies.
Yes, no traddies!
No reminder of the essence of Catholicism when the existential Church is so far removed… Rather like Dorian Grey, Ecumenical New Church has a queer aversion to mirrors.
Traddies are that mirror.
Demotion by Promotion
Quite a few years ago now ChurchMilitant organised a ranking by vote of the American bishops at the time. Blaise Cupich ranked as the worst.